


Unbreakable

by AnAddictionToCinnamonBuns



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Byun Baekhyun & Do Kyungsoo | D.O are Best Friends, Drama, Drama & Romance, Dyslexic! Baekhyun, F/M, Fluff, I REALLY HATE PUTTING SPECIFIC TAGS BECAUSE THEY COULD COME OFF AS SPOILERS SO YEAH, Implied Mpreg, M/M, Platonic Relationships, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:34:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23629321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnAddictionToCinnamonBuns/pseuds/AnAddictionToCinnamonBuns
Summary: 4 people fated to meet, 2 joyful couples, and an unbreakable bond to grant eternal happiness for a lifetimeor4 intertwining yet clashing realities, 2 tragedies, and the reason why happiness doesn't last forever~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Aka Kyungsoo finds a book written about his beautiful past"The reason why everyone lives a beautiful life is because of the tragedies they face, no one is perfect and that's why we all live beautiful tragedies."
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O, Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 19
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M THINKING WRITE NOW. It's 3 am, I have exams tomorrow, and I just spent 2 hours straight writing this chapter!?!?!?!? 
> 
> I really haven't written anything in a long time so this is quite, wow, it's an oddly refreshing experience, this chapter might be trash because it's the first chapter but please enjoy lol.
> 
> I wrote this listening to a one hour loop of Wait and Smile on my Face xD
> 
> Edit note:  
> Hi! If you're coming back to reread this first chapter because I did some adjustments, please focus on the second half of the chapter!

~~~~

It is a seemingly calm spring day in a world bustling on a daily basis. The delicate cherry blossoms that drift on the wind have yet to soothe the hearts of people running around late for their shifts, people walking tiredly after another long night of studying, and everyone that has crumbled to the stresses of society. And because everyone literally implies to EVERYONE, 33-year-old Do Kyungsoo is also a victim to society. 

As the CEO of a corporation with a name he doesn't really like mentioning to people, Kyungsoo is sitting at his desk on the top floor, typing furiously on his computer as he prepares his presentation to go over with the board of directors tomorrow morning on their proceeding plans into the summer months. They are working to expand internationally, and Kyungsoo felt the need to take charge of the project to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

He is struck out of his work trance by a curt knock on his door. 

"Come in." One of the general managers, Ilhoon bursts through the door frantically. 

"My-my-my." He's clutching his phone to his chest and he seems like he's on the verge of a breakdown. Kyungsoo flinches and grabs his desk in shock as the man falls to his knees, Ilhoon has one of the most calmest demeanor in the company. "My wife is going into labor!" Kyungsoo's grip on his desk unconsciously tightens but his face softens.

"Why did you come tell me that? You can go." Ilhoon seemed to calm down slightly and stood up onto his feet. "Sorry, I was worried you were going to fire me." 

Kyungsoo frowned, he knows he has a reputation of appearing super strict at times. "But this is a family emergency Ilhoon, at the worst case scenario I would only ask you where you went if I found out that you ran off halfway through your shift." Ilhoon nodded to Kyungsoo's words. "Now go and support your wife." 

"Thank you Kyungsoo," Ilhoon dashed out of the door, missing Kyungsoo's soft 'congratulations' at the end of his statement. Kyungsoo sighed. 

Labor, Ilhoon was going to become a father, Kyungsoo gave himself a tight lipped smile and released his grip on the desk as he saw his knuckle go white. 

He couldn't focus on his presentation outline for the following hour, constantly finding himself staring out of the window as stray thoughts constantly clouded his mind. The sun had cleared for the afternoon but due to the light morning showers, a few cherry blossom petals clung to the window. 

_**"Take this Ddodoro!" Kyungsoo gasped in shock as a small ball of wet cherry blossom petals struck his cheek. The surprise caused him to fall on his butt, but he started laughing. He quickly stopped laughing and sent a lighthearted glare at his best friend.** _

_**"You want a snowball fight in spring? Well you got one!" The offender in question screamed as he saw Kyungsoo gather another ball of cherry blossoms, this time sporting various mud clumps from the damp ground. "No not my uniform, anything but the uniform!" The attacker ran off in a mix of screams and giggles as Kyungsoo chased him around the field.** _

_**As Kyungsoo was less athletic, he found himself never catching up to the perpetrator, however he suddenly stopped and put his hands on his hips, smirking at Kyungsoo. "Do!" "Yah, Do!"** _

"Mr. Do!" 

"Wah...." Kyungsoo jolted from his sleep as a coffee cup was placed in front of him, his secretary offered him a soft smile. 

"Mr. Do, I think you should head home early today, the proposal has had you overworking yourself this week." Kyungsoo groggily nodded, maybe he needed a break.

"Thanks Yunji, I think I will." She bowed to him and left the office. Kyungsoo heeded her advice, and after packing his belongings, he was out of the building after 10 minutes. He strolled down the streets of Seoul, his car was at the mechanics for the next few days due to a faulty engine and he had figured that taking public transit once in a while wasn't so bad. 

As someone with his age and job position, Kyungsoo appreciated the tranquility of his walk, window shopping suddenly seemed like one of life's greatest pleasures as Kyungsoo found joy in glancing at the various products placed in shop windows. 

He only spared each shop a few seconds at a time, if he was heading home early he might as well use up as much time at possible at home to relax. 

That is, until a book store caught his eye. It wasn't the book store itself that caught his eye, it was the book in the display case. 

**#1 National Bestseller! Translated into 5 major languages! Placed in top 50 of the world's greatest books of the decade!**

With major praises like those, the book was placed on a high pedestal above all the other books on display. 

_Unbreakable_ , something about the title seemed to lure Kyungsoo into the store. 

"Welcome to NKBS! Please look around!" An old lady called out from the cash register. Kyungsoo gave a slight bow to the elder and found that the book that was on display also had a mini section on one of the bookshelves, with about 10 copies of it stacked side by side, occupying half of the bookshelf. 

He didn't understand what was drawing him to these actions, but he immediately grabbed a copy and brought it to the old lady. 

"Ah, I see you've also heard about the popularity for this book?" She asked as she scanned it.

"Actually, I've never heard of it, the display caught my attention." The old lady perked up.

"Oh? So you don't know what made this book capture the world's heart?" Kyungsoo shook his head and held up his credit card, a silent signal for the old lady to activate the card reader. 

"Well, since you haven't heard what made this book so amazing, I won't tell you." She gave Kyungsoo a playful wink and handed him the book in a plastic bag. "But I will tell you this, it must be why people love it so much, it's based off of a true story." Kyungsoo's eyebrow quirked in confusion and then he broke out into a grin at how ridiculous that sounded.

"I doubt that the author fully lived out all of the events in the book, no one lives a life that interesting, I'm sure they exaggerated and gave small lies about some of the parts. 

"Maybe the author did, but only he knows, and I guess the characters in the story know too, but that's what makes it so magical!" The old lady's eyes sparkled, Kyungsoo smiled again seeing her so passionate about the book. 

"Aigoo, you're so cute, how are you not married." Kyungsoo glanced at his left hand with the old lady's words, seeing the lack of a wedding band on it. His grip on the bag tightened. 

"I'm not sure, have a nice day!" Kyungsoo had to cut off the conversation and left the bookstore with the book in hand. 

As he found his way to the subway and settled on one of the seats, Kyungsoo took the book out of the plastic bag as the subway doors dinged close. 

_Unbreakable_ , He traced his fingers over the gold text of the title. Aside from the awards now stamped on the corner of the book, the cover was simple, almost too simple with the golden title placed on a solid white background. The book was hardcover but not protected with a booksleeve like most books do, it already seemed like the book was so pure yet so easy to damage. 

Kyungsoo flipped the cover and the inside of the book had an ombre transition from white, to grey, to black as a golden sentence filled the black page. This story is not only based on a true story, it is an accurate recount of it.

Kyungsoo sneered at the fact, no author has ever been bold enough to say they had an exact retelling of someone's life, it seemed like it was more or less there for a dramatic effect. Speaking of, who was the author?

Flipping back to the front page, Kyungsoo frowned at the lack of a full name, except, the initials PDK with the same gold font, albeit a few sizes smaller. 

"Oh well, not a huge loss." Kyungsoo muttered as he turned to the next page. 

_**This sto-** _

Kyungsoo's reading adventure was already cut to an abrupt halt as the train announced it was reaching Kyungsoo's station. He got off and pulled the book out again when he sat himself on the bus. 

_**This story is about 4 people fated to meet** _

"Hmmmmm."

_**2 joyful couples** _

"Well that's funny." Kyungsoo squinted his eyes, maybe he was reading it wrong

_**And an unbreakable bond to grant eternal happiness for a lifetime** _

_**So Kyungin was a simple boy who lived a not so simple life** _

"Ha." Kyungsoo let out a light chuckle. "That sounds like my name." 

_**Kyungin already had his life plan set out for him, it was a fact that everyone sometimes envied when they had to deal with a demanding yet selective job market where only the luckiest make it through. Before, he expected that he would take over his family business and live perhaps a quiet life. Except, Kyungin didn't like this future that was laid out in his hands, he had dreams for something else, and maybe this desire is what made him live a beautiful life.** _

_**But what makes life beautiful are the tragedies that one faces, and overtime, Kyungin's once simple life became a beautiful tragedy.** _

_**Now, this story doesn't start where Kyungin fell off the path of happiness, it starts from where his destiny changed.** _

_**A little wrench was thrown onto his straightforward path, or a big one, it happened one fateful day when he was in high school, back when Kyungin's classmates loved to jokingly call him Kororo for his resemblance to the childhood characte-** _

"WAIT WHAT!" Kyungsoo shouted from the back of the bus, everyone glared at him, Kyungsoo turned a bright shade of red, spitting out apologizes as the passengers rolled their eyes and turned back to their own business. Kyungsoo didn't have to die in embarrassment any longer, for the bus reached his stop a couple of minutes after. He got off the bus and stared at the book in shock. 

"There's no way, there's no way that this book is about........" Kyungsoo flipped through the first 10 pages for a quick check, eyes widening as he caught slight details that sent chills down his spine. "It's about me."

"That means the author of this book is......" Kyungsoo flipped back to the front page and traced the initials again, "But why that pen name...." Left reeling from the shock, Kyungsoo held the book to his side as he made the remaining 10 minute walk back to his house, it was a nicely sized house but modest considering Kyungsoo's income. 

"Mr. Do, you're home early!" His housekeeper came rushing down the stairs at the sound of the door opening, holding a basket of laundry. 

"Yeah, I had to take a break from work." Kyungsoo muttered in shock. She nodded and helped him out of his jacket. "Yoojin, I also said to call me Kyungsoo." 

"Sorry Mr, uh, Kyungsoo." Kyungsoo gave her a small smile and started to walk away.

"Kyungsoo," He turned back to his housekeeper, "I picked up your son from elementary today and he doesn't have any after school schedule today so he's just in his room."

"Thanks for letting me know, And Yoojin,"

"Yes?" 

"I know I said I was going to cook dinner tonight but can you do it? I have something to do." Yoojin nodded. "Of course Kyungsoo, I'll get it started after I do the laundry." She was out of his sight. Kyungsoo sauntered up to his bedroom and changed out of his work clothes. 

He stopped and stared at the scar across his stomach and traced his fingers over the scar line.

"Does the book talk about this too?" Kyungsoo muttered to himself and changed into more comfortable clothes. 

Kyungsoo plopped onto the bed with the book. 

"If this is what I think this is." Kyungsoo's voice trembled as he held the book up to his face. He was restless for a minute before he resolved himself, "Okay, I got this." 

He opened the book. 

* * *

Do Kyungsoo was a simple boy who lived a not so simple life

Kyungin already had his life plan set out for him, it was a fact that everyone sometimes envied when they had to deal with a demanding yet selective job market where only the luckiest make it through. Before, he expected that he would take over his family business and live perhaps a quiet life. Except, Kyungin didn't like this future that was laid out in his hands, he had dreams for something else, and maybe this desire is what made him live a beautiful life.

But what makes life beautiful are the tragedies that one faces, and overtime, Kyungin's once simple life became a beautiful tragedy.

Now, this story doesn't start where Kyungin fell off the path of happiness, it starts from where his destiny changed.

A little wrench was thrown onto his straightforward path, or a big one, it happened one fateful day when he was in high school, back when Kyungsoo's classmates loved to jokingly call him Ddodoro for his resemblance to the childhood character. But it was all in good fun, Kyungsoo appreciated the nickname, it helped him feel closer to his classmates when he knew that he was not close friends with any of them. 

It wasn't that they all disliked him, he just didn't click with any of them. Kyungsoo went to a rich private school, he wasn't the biggest fan of the idea, a meager middle class person being wedged among potential rich snobs but his mother saved every last penny for him to have the best education he could so he went with it.

Kyungsoo was waiting for a sign, anyone to maybe come waltzing into the classroom. 

"Class, we have a new student today." Murmurs broke out among the students. Kyungsoo's looked left and right to catch bits and pieces of their conversations.

"I heard about the new student, he's a year older but he was held back a grade in elementary school." 

"He must be a retard if he had to be held back a grade."

"No! What if he was maybe sick for a year? Actually, the stupid thing sounds probable."

"Now guys," The professor broke through the noise. "I already know about the rumors regarding this new student, and I will have you know, if I catch any of you bullying him I will personally escort you to the principal's office, got it?" The class fell into silence and the people who were whispering loudly paled as they all said "Yes teacher." 

"Oka-" Suddenly, a student poked his head in through the door. 

"Hello! Is this Mr. Yoon's room? Room 217?" The teacher smiled, "Why yes, that's the right room, but my name is Mr. Shin." 

"Oh..." The student rubbed the nape of his neck sheepishly, "Sorry, I must've read it wrong. I'm the new student." The new student's hand tilted as the slip of paper he was holding was now visible to the class. While not completely readable from a distances due to the amount and size of the text, the teacher and room were stamped in big black bold letters on the top. 

Mr. Shin. Room 217.

One of the girls beside Kyungsoo let out a small gasp, and whispered to her friend beside her

"No way, I think he's dyslexic!" Her friend nodded beside her in shock as all the people in the room started to make knowing glances at each other as the new student teetered at the door frame. 

"So can I come in?" Mr.Shin seemed to be blanking for a second before he suddenly came back to reality. 

"Sorry, my mind drifted somewhere, yes you may! Please introduce yourself to the class, and class, remember what we talked about, please greet him warmly." Kyungsoo felt dumbfounded as the guy then nonchalantly sauntered into the classroom, despite his impending disability, he seemed confident in himself, it was almost charming. 

"Hello guys! I'm Byun Baekhyun, please take care of me." Baekhyun offered a slight bow and the class let out a warmer "welcome" then Kyungsoo expected, maybe they felt Baekhyun's aura too.

"Now Baekhyun, there's a few empty seats because of absences today but please take the empty seat beside Kyungsoo." Baekhyun squinted at all the nametags on the desks, trying to figure out which desk read Kyungsoo.

"Kyungsoo, kyungsoo, kyungsoo." He muttered to himself for the brief moment he tried to figure it out. The teacher covered for him quickly.

"Kyungsoo, please raise your hand." Kyungsoo shyly raised his hand and he made eye contact with Baekhyun, who instantly brightened and made his way over to Kyungsoo. 

"It's nice to meet you Kyungsoo." Baekhyun didn't hesitate to extend the warm greeting to Kyungsoo, who blinked back in surprise at how amicable the guy was. Kyungsoo took Baekhyun's hand, shook it, and nodded.

"It's very nice to meet you." Baekhyun smiled widely. 

"Kyungsoo, I can tell that we're going to be great friends."

And maybe this was the sign Kyungsoo was looking for.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Baekhyun adjusts to his new school, he and Kyungsoo get closer. While Kyungsoo feels that he's getting to know the real Baekhyun, he's about to realize that this is just the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow look at me, finishing by an actual deadline, watch this be the only time that I do that!
> 
> Anyways, as you can see, I did finalize the plot so at its shortest, this fic will be 21 chapters but I have a feeling something extra will be added so really just expect somewhere between 21-30 I guess. 
> 
> AND IF YOU DIDN'T REREAD THE FIRST CHAPTER AFTER 04/26 I HIGHLY RECCOMEND THAT YOU DO SO BECAUSE THERE WAS SOME IMPORTANT ADJUSTMENTS THAT WERE MADE AFTER THE PLOT WAS FINALIZED
> 
> Thank you, now enjoy <3

_**This story will have changes in perspectives between four characters with varying frequency and are marked by these respective lines.** _

_**Do Kyungsoo - > ~~~** _

_**Byun Baekhyun - > ***** _

_**Park Chanyeol - > ///** _

_**Kim Jongin - > <3<3<3** _

_**This will be posted at the beginning of every chapter for reference, yes, they are all symbolic.** _

__

**~~~**

Kyungsoo wasn't sure what he expected from a dyslexic person, but it certainly wasn't the way Baekhyun was acting in school. 

After their introduction, the homeroom teacher had left the class and the history teacher came in. Kyungsoo bit his lip as the teacher projected slides onto the board, his classmates also stole glances at Baekhyun's direction, curious to how he would handle the situation, aka reading. 

Maybe Baekhyun would start squinting at the slides, maybe he'd start sounding out all the words out loud, maybe he'd constantly groan in frustration at an inability to understand the teacher. 

When the teacher started teaching, Baekhyun didn't bother looking. In fact, he sat at his desk with his eyes closed. Kyungsoo almost wanted to ask him if he was okay, but decided to wait it out first. 

"Is he going to sleep because he can't read the slides?" One of the girls, Hyeyeon, whispered beside Kyungsoo. Baekhyun heard her and opened an eye at her, quirking his eyebrow, she muttered an apology in embarrassment and turned back to the board. Baekhyun did the same. 

Kyungsoo also found himself lost in the teacher's current tale, a tap dancing group in the Korean War that was said to assault an American general at a prisoner of war camp, Kyungsoo shuddered at the details, but something about the story seemed like it was made up. Regardless, Kyungsoo stole a glance at Baekhyun who went back to closing his eyes. 

What Kyungsoo didn't notice before though, was that Baekhyun was holding a pen and actually writing on a piece of paper in front of him, with his eyes closed. 

The notes were almost too simple, starting with a key term and branching off into various 1-3 word sentences below it. It still had spelling errors on it.

  * _Korean Wor_

    * _Daence Groop_

      * _Kiled General_




Kyungsoo lost track of how long he spent paying attention to Baekhyun, when the teacher wrapped up his lecture, Kyungsoo realized that he barely wrote anything down, at least the teacher posted the notes online after. Baekhyun opened his eyes again, looking at his sheet, he squinted at it, trying to read it. 

A small smile graced his lips, and he took the paper and tucked it into one of his binders, he also pulled a gadget out of his pocket and pressed the stop button, it was an audio recorder. He looked back at Kyungsoo with a smirk. 

"Not what you expected huh?" Kyungsoo's eyes widened. "No, sorry, it's not that I was judging you..." Baekhyun laughed at his reaction, a boisterous laugh filled the room. It was infectious and a few other people in the room laughed as well. "Didn't the teacher say it was break, you wanna show me to the bathroom?" 

"Yeah sure." Kyungsoo was embarrassed, he felt like he dashed his one chance of becoming close friends with Baekhyun for coming across as a critical bitch. 

When they left the classroom Baekhyun laughed again, "Why do you look like I'm going to kill you? Don't start shitting your pants." 

"I just-" Baekhyun waved his hand in dismissal.

"It's okay, I've dealt with way worse." Baekhyun smiled at him. "And I don't really need to use the bathroom, I wanted to talk to you." 

"About what?" Baekhyun stifled a laugh and nudged Kyungsoo's shoulder. "About you of course! Wait, is that a SHINee key charm!?" Baekhyun said in an exasperated tone and pointed to the keychain dangling off of Kyungsoo's phone, it was SHINee's logo. Suddenly the left Kyungsoo's body and he smiled. 

"Yes it is, please tell me you actually like Ring Ding Dong?" 

"I do! But we only get to be friends if you're not a Lucifer hater." 

"I would rather die then ever call Lucifer a bad song!" 

And that's how the two ended up talking expressively on their way back to class, both sharing in their love for SHINee, Kyungsoo didn't really get to learn anything about Baekhyun other than that because classes resumed.

Baekhyun's study method persisted through the second class, biology, Then when literature started, no one was surprised that a learning support teacher came to pick up Baekhyun. It was a given, there was no point of him staying in the classroom anyways for a subject that literally relied on reading. 

**~~~**

Kyungsoo wanted to talk to Baekhyun more at lunch, however, he was stuck to cafeteria duties. It wasn't a secret around the school that Kyungsoo's house was on top of a bakery that his mother inherited from her in laws before Kyungsoo's father passed away from cancer. 

He passed away 2 years after Kyungsoo was born, so frankly, Kyungsoo grew up with no memories of his dad except for pictures of the two of them. Even though he had a brother 7 years older than him, Kisoo was adamant on a future in the military so his mother was equally adamant on Kyungsoo inheriting the family business, Kyungsoo wasn't particularly interested in it but he didn't want to ditch his mother later on in life.

The pastries were well received amongst his peers whenever Kyungsoo brought in a dozen or two for advertising or school celebrations. With that, his mother 'heavily encouraged' him to stay in a kitchen whenever possible for the culinary experience, thus, he helped out in the cafeteria three days a week to prepare and distribute food for the first half of lunch. It wasn't so bad, Kyungsoo got to practice his social skills and he could have free food, it was a win win. 

Kyungsoo had an easy task today, handing out kimbap rolls to whoever passed him, he could do it absentmindedly, so he took advantage of it to observe Baekhyun as the new student poked his head into the cafeteria. 

Baekhyun was something special, he didn't even hesitate the moment he saw a group their classmates sitting near one of the windows. He smiled at them and sat beside Joohyun. Within minutes the group had already warmed up to Baekhyun and was laughing at a joke he made. 

Kyungsoo sighed, Baekhyun might've made that good friend comment earlier out of courtesy and he felt that there went his chance at getting a best friend.

**~~~**

_**Ding!** _

The final school bell rang, and Kyungsoo watched as a portion of his classmates still flocked around Baekhyun, trying to get to know him. He waved to his classmates and left the building. 

He was about to put his earphones in when someone started shouting.

"I'll talk with you guys more tomorrow! Bye!" Baekhyun was running out of the school towards Kyungsoo and waving back to several of their classmates

"Yah, Kyungsoo!" Baekhyun caught up to him, "Which way do you live?" 

"That way." Kyungsoo pointed to the right. 

"Cool! My house is in that direction, do you want to walk together?" Baekhyun treated it like a rhetorical question, already assuming Kyungsoo's answer and tugging on his wrist. 

"I thought you were going to stay to talk to our classmates." Baekhyun stopped. 

"I can talk to them some other time. Trust me." Baekhyun shot Kyungsoo a wide smile, "I wasn't kidding when I said I could tell that we were going to be good friends. I can feel it in my heart!" Baekhyun dramatically placed his hand over his heart.

"Yuck, that's dramatic." Kyungsoo stuck his tongue out, causing Baekhyun to quirk his eyebrows and laugh out loud. 

"See, we already click! Now, tell me more about you!" Baekhyun tugged Kyungsoo along again and suddenly Kyungsoo's usual peaceful school walks were replaced with Baekhyun's voice as he shot question after question into Kyungsoo's interests. 

Within 10 minutes of their walk, Kyungsoo learned that aside from the fact that they both love SHINee, Baekhyun also loved strawberries and shared a soft spot for pokemon from his childhood, which caused a short debate between the two on the better regions of the series. Baekhyun also talked about his love for singing

"You should join the school choir with me! I don't have that many people to talk to there." Kyungsoo suggested.

"I'm not very good at it though." Baekhyun said. 

"It's okay, it's just a high school choir, some people are tone deaf but the director lets it slide because he prefers quantity over quality." 

"Hmm, then I'll think about it." Kyungsoo's phone buzzed, he glanced at it and found a twitter notification announcing an upcoming SHINee comeback.

"Oh look!" Kyungsoo showed the tweet to Baekhyun and mentally facepalmed when Baekhyun squinted. "Ah! I forgot sorry."

"It's okay, dyslexia isn't visible so people tend to forget that I have it until writing or reading is involved." 

"But you seemed okay in class." Kyungsoo became bewildered. "Wait, how do you even handle that?"

"I see! You're curious about the secrets of an intellect like me!" Baekhyun gloated but his expression remained neutral. 

"You know there's different kinds of dyslexia. Some people can't read text, some people can't do math, some people can technically read but can't think of the words in their head. As for me," Baekhyun stopped and closed his eyes and started tracing hangul in the air. "Reading lines are mushy but I can visualize the words pretty well, which is why you saw me with my eyes closed in class." 

"That's cool." Kyungsoo was amazed, Baekhyun seemed to fully embrace his disability. 

"It's kind of hard to replicate my thoughts onto paper though, my muscle memory isn't quite there yet, but that's what learning support is for I guess, in my old school we practiced writing out new vocabulary and they helped me with the trickier stuff in class. I'm doing the same thing with the teacher's here and you also know about this," Baekhyun pulled the audio recorder out of his pocket, "It helps to replay what the teachers say in class and practice at home too." 

"I could help you sometime too! Hey, here's my house." Kyungsoo realized that they were about to walk past his bakery. 

"You live in a bakery!?" 

"Wait, no, my house is on top of the bakery, but my family does own the bakery." Kyungsoo pointed to the two stories on top of the bakery. Baekhyun unconsciously licked his lips.

"I kind of have a sweet tooth, especially for cinnamon buns, do you bake those?" Kyungsoo nodded.

"They're one of my mom's favorites so she bakes a lot for the store." 

"Oh my god, please give me all the extras!" Kyungsoo giggled. 

"It'll be 3,000 won for each." Baekhyun deflated but Kyungsoo lightly elbowed him.

"Relax, I'm kidding," Baekhyun's face lit up, "Besides, you said live in my direction, where's your house?" 

Baekhyun hesitated for a couple of seconds, "Uh," He was looking around, "There." He pointed at the street that they crossed before reaching Kyungsoo's bakery, "If you go right for around 5 to 10 minutes then you'll reach my house." 

"I see, anyways, I need to help my mom in the bakery so I have to go, I'll show you around one day." 

"Okay, bye Kyungsoo!" Baekhyun waved Kyungsoo off as he entered the bakery. 

His mother was standing at the counter, packing a box of cinnamon buns as she conversed with one of the workers beside her. She kept a small amount of staff around, usually one or two extra hands to help in the kitchen.

"Someone looks happy." Kyungsoo's mother smirked at her son skipping into their bakery.

"I am!" Kyungsoo whizzed past a customer standing by the counter and swiped a muffin from the display case, the customer shot him a look before his mother apologetically explained that it's her son. "I think I finally found my soulmate."

"You're dating someone? Hey!" His mother jabbed a bread knife in his direction, "I said no dating until university." 

"Umma, it's a best friend, I think I've finally found someone to be my best friend." 

"Oh," Ms. Do lowered her knife, "That's great, that means you have enough energy to bake 2 dozen cupcakes after you get changed?" 

Kyungsoo pouted, "Yes I will." and he trudged upstairs to their two story house that was connected on top of the bakery.

~~~

Kyungsoo swung upon his bedroom door, "And this is my room." 

"Woah."

The Friday of that same week, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun had decided to hang out at Kyungsoo's house after school. Baekhyun was currently gawking at Kyungsoo's room. The reaction was almost comical, Kyungsoo's room was akin to a typical teenager's, it had anime posters sprawled across the walls, kpop albums displayed on one bookshelf and a set up of music equipment. Kyungsoo had a laptop squished in between two speakers, with a keyboard, beatpad, and an assortment of slider and mixer panels. A microphone loomed over the set. 

"Recording equipment?!?!" Baekhyun dashed to the set up on Kyungsoo's desk, "Oh my god, production equipment too, you could produce actual music with this stuff!"

"Yeah, it was Kisoo's before he decided he wanted to work in the military, and since he spent so much money on it and didn't want it to rot in the attic, he gave it to me. I don't really know how to use most of it but the keyboard and microphone help with choir stuff." Baekhyun's eyes were sparkling. 

"Can I, wow," His hands hovered over the beatpad, "Can I touch it?" 

"Of course." Kyungsoo reached over and turned on his laptop and opened a production software. 

Watching Baekhyun play and fawn over all the equipment was a spectacle, he giggled like a little girl over every button he touched. He lost himself in the equipment for a few minutes before he remembered that Kyungsoo was there. 

"Someone's excited." He smirked. 

"Yeah, it's just that, I love making music, dyslexia can't screw with music for me. People assume that since I can't read, that must apply to sheet music as well but that's not the case, it's weird. I think scientists say that it has to do with reading words and reading music using two different parts of the brain. Like this," Baekhyun picked up a stray piece of piano music on the keyboard and started sight reading it. It was piano music for a ballad and Baekhyun caught on, singing the lyrics from memory as he looked at the piano music. Even though he stumbled a few times, given it was his first time looking at it, he played it almost perfectly. 

"Wow," Kyungsoo's eyes widened. "You're good, I know you said you liked singing but how come you never talked about how good you are at it? Now you really should join the choir." 

"I don't think I'm that good" Baekhyun said, "And I was going to leave it as a surprise but I already talked about it with Mrs. Lee and she helped register me for the program so I'll join you on Monday!"

Kyungsoo clasped his hands in excitement, "I can't wait!" 

They played around with the equipment longer, trying to create an epic rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when Baekhyun turned back to Kyungsoo.

"I want to be a k-pop idol." He brought up randomly.

"But you said you like making music? K-pop idols sing and dance." Kyungsoo stopped when he saw that Baekhyun was giving him a confused look, he realized he blurted that out. "Wait. Sorry." Baekhyun laughed at him. 

"It's fine, you've blurted out enough thoughts already for me to know that about you. OW!" Baekhyun yelped as Kyungsoo whacked his arm. "Anyways, I know they sing and dance, but I want to be a cool idol that can do those two and make awesome music! I want to inspire people, imagine that, a disabled k-pop idol becoming an inspirational figure for people of all ages, I want people to believe that they can achieve anything, I want to make a change for this world you know?" The statement struck a chord in Kyungsoo's heart, encouraging him to say something that's been on his mind for a while.

"Me too, I don't want to stay in a bakery my whole life." 

"What?" Baekhyun moved closer to Kyungsoo to hear him again, he must've mumbled it. 

"Kyungsoo, dinner's ready!" His mother's voice bellowed from upstairs. 

"I said I was hungry, that's pretty good timing isn't it?" Kyungsoo felt embarrassed to repeat it again, it always felt like a crime to go against what his mother wanted from him. 

"Yes, if your mom's pastries are that good I bet she does savory even better!" Baekhyun exclaimed as he made his way out the room. 

"Yeah, she does." Kyungsoo said to himself and followed suite. Kyungsoo's mother didn't stick around to eat dinner with them, stating that she has to fix up some things for the bakery and that she'll eat later, she left them to dig into her kimchi spahgetti. 

"Wow! Baekhyun's eyes sparkled, "This is amazing!" He said through a mouthful of the food. 

"I know right, I've been working on cooking it exactly like her so one day I could make this." Kyungsoo exclaimed.

The duo fell into small talk, still trying to learn everything they could about each other. 

"So they call you Ddodoro because of Pororo huh?" Baekhyun smirked. "That's cute, because you're small."

"That's not why they call me that!" Kyungsoo jabbed his fork in Baekhyun's direction, like mother like son. "It's because of my eyes.

"These eyes?" Baekhyun stretched his eyes as wide as he could to make a O-O and Kyungsoo glared at him. Then he broke into laughter when Baekhyun stuck his tongue out too. 

"Now you look ridiculous." Baekhyun smiled to himself and returned his face to normal. The two of them continued their small talk, gushing over the upcoming SHINee comeback when Baekhyun's phone rang. He didn't bother to look at the contact I.D, that's pointless, and he answered the phone.

"Hello?" Kyungsoo watched as Baekhyun's face twisted into worry to the words of woman on the other end. "I'll be there soon. Bye." 

"What happened? Who was that?" Baekhyun's eyes flitted across the room

"That was my mom, something came up." Kyungsoo didn't press the topic and helped Baekhyun by bringing both of their empty plates then leading him to the door. Baekhyun's face was apologetic.

"Next time, we'll do a sleepover okay? Mark my words!" Baekhyun said. 

"Haha if you say so, Bye!" Kyungsoo smiled and waved at Baekhyun until he was out of sight. 

*******

The following Monday, Baekhyun felt like he was dying on the spot, he theoretically could be, with the scrutinizing glances the choir director was giving as he stood in front of him. Kyungsoo squeezed Baekhyun's hand lightly and whispered into his ear "Relax, you'll be fine." and he walked to his seat. 

"So, Byun Baekhyun right?" The teacher squinted his eyes and Baekhyun felt his palms start to sweat

"Yes, Sir!" Baekhyun bowed stoically to the teacher and turned back up to see the teacher laughing at him. 

"Relax kiddo, this is not the military, this is a high school choir, you can call me Mr. Kim instead, however," Baekhyun's breath hitched, "You are coming a little late for the year already, you're going to have to prove your worth to this class. Stay there." With that the choir director turned his attention to the noisy class of adolescents.

"Good morning everyone!" 

"Good morning Mr. Kim!"

"Now, we have a new student joining us today, Byun Baekhyun." At the mention of his name, Baekhyun turned to the class and bowed to them, they returned a courtesy applause. "And you know the tradition we do to new students, right class?" 

"Yes." Tension was rising in the room, or excitement, Baekhyun couldn't read the atmosphere. Were they going to exorcise him?

"Alright, Baekhyun, please sing something for the class." Oh, they weren't going to douse him in holy water and chant gospel songs. 

"Um, sure." Baekhyun walked to the front of the class and locked eyes with Kyungsoo, who was giving him an encouraging nod and thumbs up. 

"Whenever you're ready Baekhyun." Baekhyun licked his lips and took a breathe. Singing the first ballad that came to mind.

_**Urban Zakapa - I Don't Love You** _

_"I don't love you"_

_"There's no other reason"_

_"I don't even want to say 'I'm sorry' or 'forgive me'"_

_"That's all"_

_"This is how I really feel"_

_"I don't love you~~~"_

The class broke into a chorus of cheers as Baekhyun released the last note, he grinned as the teacher walked up applauding as well. 

"Nicely done Baekhyun, I didn't know you had it in you, but you're giving Jongdae a run for his money and maybe he will share some of his solos with you. Since you're a tenor, please sit over there in the back between Kyungsoo and Jongdae." Baekhyun glanced over to Kyungsoo and they exchanged even wider smiles, but looking at the person he assumed was Jongdae was a whole other story.

Jongdae was looking at Baekhyun with a cross squint of his eyebrows, Baekhyun gulped at the expression but made his way over regardless.

"What if Jongdae kills him, no one's ever sang better than him before." One of the choir students whispered to her friend as Baekhyun passed them, he gulped even harder.

"That was amazing." Kyungsoo excitedly whispered into Baekhyun's ear and patted his back as he sat down. Baekhyun nodded at him and turned to Jongdae. Being the extrovert he was, he still held out his hand to Jongdae. 

"It's nice to meet you Jongdae, I'm Baekhyun." Jongdae turned to him wordlessly and gave a small nod, he returned the handshake as well, but the look in his eyes was still menacing. Baekhyun stopped the small yelp from escaping his mouth. They both turned away from each other, and Baekhyun tried to shrug the interaction out of his head, opting to discuss with Kyungsoo their plans for break instead until the choir director got the class started. 

**~~~**

"Did you see the look he was giving me, Soo, I think he's gonna murder me!" Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were situated at a tteokbokki stand near Kyungsoo's house after school. It was one of Kyungsoo's favorite places to grab a small bite to eat and he was regular enough that the old lady that ran the stand slid him a few extra pieces after he paid. 

"It was weird, He's a grade above us but Jongdae's usually more of a crackhead like you."

"Hey!" Baekhyun whacked Kyungsoo's arm. Kyungsoo glared at Baekhyun and pinched his arm. Baekhyun yelped and pouted. Kyungsoo ignored it and continued

"He must've skipped his coffee or something I don't know, if he doesn't hate you he'll explain himself next time you see him." Kyungsoo puffed out his chest. "And besides, if he wants to kill you, he'll have to go through me first."

"With your size Jongdae would trample you in no time." Kyungsoo sent Baekhyun another look that sent shivers down his spine. 

"I'll kill you before Jongdae does if you keep that up." He deadpanned. 

"No, I'm sorry, please be my guardian forever." Baekhyun gripped Kyungsoo's arm and his face softened. 

"You two are so cute! Are you boyfriends?" 

"No!" They both shouted at the old lady, realizing how alarming that was, Baekhyun smiled apologetically and slung his arm around Kyungsoo's shoulder, disliking physical contact, Kyungsoo shrugged off Baekhyun's arm. 

Baekhyun frowned but still announced that "we're best friends." Kyungsoo's eyes widened, Baekhyun saw him that way too?

"That's even better, I met my best friend in high school and we're still as close as two peas in a pod." The old lady said.

The duo spent a few more minutes at the booth, eating and conversing between each other and the lady before Kyungsoo paid her and they left. 

The walk back to Kyungsoo's house was strangely quiet, Baekhyun shot Kyungsoo occasional looks in concern but he was deep in concentration looking at the ground. As they reached Kyungsoo's house, he turned back to Baekhyun.

"Did you really mean what you said?" Baekhyun tilted his head. "What did I say?" 

"You told the old lady that we're best friends, but we've only known each other for a week." Baekhyun laughed at Kyungsoo. "What are you laughing at?"

"I don't know, it's just cute, yeah I know I only met you a week ago but did you not feel those sparks when we met," Baekhyun placed a hand on Kyungsoo's arm, "The moment we locked eyes I knew that we were meant to be soul sisters. I know I said I felt that we would be good friends but internally, I could feel that we would become best friends. We have our whole lives ahead of us to get to know each other." Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and slapped Baekhyun's arm away

"That's cheesy! But I felt the same way too!" Kyungsoo wrapped his arms around Baekhyun and shouted happily. "I finally found a best friend!"

"I thought you didn't like physical contact." There was a hint of playfulness in Baekhyun's voice. 

"I like it if I initiate the contact." Baekhyun nodded in understanding. "Hey, since we're best friends, can't we go over to your house on Friday?" 

Baekhyun froze, "Probably not this week, the house is kind of a mess because we moved, maybe some other time yeah?" 

Kyungsoo frowned, "Oh okay." He started walking away from Baekhyun, who stood in his place, but then Kyungsoo stopped at the doorway to the bakery and turned to Baekhyun. "Are you not coming? It's only 5pm and we still have homework to do." 

"Oh yeah sorry." Baekhyun smiled sheepishly. "I just had a moment." 

"I feel like you're always having a moment." 

"HEY!" Baekhyun chased Kyungsoo into the building, earning disapproving glances from customers on the first floor.

*******

Baekhyun was fidgety on his way to school, nervous that Jongdae was intending to unleash something terrible on him the moment he'd walk into the building. 

"Hey," Kyungsoo jabbed Baekhyun's side, "Relax." 

After Baekhyun moved to the school, the duo would often walk to and from school together, with Baekhyun waiting outside of Kyungsoo's house every morning. 

"I know but AH!," As they entered the school grounds, Baekhyun could already see Jongdae standing outside of the building, seemingly waiting for him to arrive. "Look he's already waiting to kill me!" 

"No he's not." Kyungsoo suddenly shoved Baekhyun and he didn't know why until Jongdae stopped him. The sour look on Jongdae's face from yesterday was gone and was instead replaced with a more softer expression, he had an apologetic expression on his face.

"Hey Baekhyun." The senior gave him a sheepish smile, Baekhyun looked around for Kyungsoo only to see him entering the school without him, what a traitor.

"Um hi Jongdae." Jongdae helped Baekhyun to hit feet, earning him a small 'thanks' from the latter. 

"So," They both started walking towards the school, "I wanted to apologize for yesterday." 

"Apologize for what?" Baekhyun decided to feign naivety. 

"I could see you squirming beside me in choir yesterday, I know you think the director's comments made me hate you or something but trust me, I just didn't have my coffee in the morning and I had a test later that day that I didn't completely study for so I was in a bad mood." 

"So, you're not going to stab me?" Jongdae burst out laughing.

"No! Never, you're a great singer by the way." Jongdae said. Baekhyun blushed at the compliment.

"Thank you." 

"I heard though, you're my age right?" Baekhyun quirked an eyebrow, did the rumors about him appearing spread to the other grades already? 

"Yeah, I was held back a year in elementary school." 

"Awesome, so you are the guy!" Jongdae slapped Baekhyun's back playfully but he was still worried, after his experience from his last high school, he was still on edge about what people said about him.

"What are the rumors about?" Jongdae held the door open for Baekhyun as they entered. 

"Oh people are talking about some cool dyslexic guy that transferred to our school, I haven't seen you read anything but you seem cool and you just transferred so I'm assuming that's you." Baekhyun's eyes widened. 

"Really? They're saying that?" Baekhyun never expected to hear such positive words. 

"Yes they are, I have to go talk to one of my teacher's about something but we should talk some time, I'll see you around!" Jongdae waved and walked away. Baekhyun was kind of in a daze at the outcome of the interaction until Kyungsoo came back to him.

"So, I was right wasn't I?" Kyungsoo had a smug grin on his face. Baekhyun elbowed him.

"Yes, yes you were, last one to class has to pay for the tteokbokki today!" 

**~~~**

Baekhyun was hiding something, Kyungsoo was sure of it.

Or he was overthinking it, that was equally likely. 

Over the couple of weeks that they'd gotten to know each other, Baekhyun was insistent on always going to Kyungsoo's house, dodging any topic related to hanging out at his house or his family. 

"Baekhyun?" They were changing in the locker room after gym class, Baekhyun had his back turned to Kyungsoo while he was changing, probably conscious about his body. He was startled by Kyungsoo calling his name, and slipped his shirt on before facing him. "Yeah?" 

"Can we sleepover at your house tonight? I think my mom's bringing a new boyfriend over and I don't want to hear what they end up doing at night." Baekhyun shook his head. 

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." And Kyungsoo's talked with him enough to know that he couldn't push the topic because he'd keep getting the same answer.

"Okay," Kyungsoo deflated, his plan to use that lie backfired on him, he ended up lying to Baekhyun later on that his mom's "boyfriend" got food poisoning and wasn't coming over anymore that night.

The day after, it was Saturday and Baekhyun was never free to hang out on Saturday nights, Kyungsoo had no idea why, so here he was, mindlessly flipping through youtube videos and figuring out how to get Baekhyun to let him come over. He was broken out of his reverie when his mother barged into his room.

"Kyungsoo, can you go to the supermarket for me please to buy some raspberries?" She asked. 

"No, it's late."

"It wasn't something you can say no to." She walked over to him and shoved a few bills into his hand.

"Umma why do I have to do this!" Kyungsoo whined.

"Because I'm in my zone", she winked," and I'm getting old and I don't want to overwork myself." Kyungsoo glared at his mother and she shot him an equally deadly glare, like mother like son. 

"Fine." 

"Yay, thanks!" Kyungsoo's mother kissed his cheek, causing him to fake gag. "Don't get killed." 

"If I get killed I'm going to haunt you!" Kyungsoo shot back as he walked out of the bakery.

It was almost midnight and Kyungsoo knew that his mother was trying to spice up the selection of pastries available at the bakery, having random night baking frenzies and it appeared that this particular night was for expanding upon her macaroon flavors only to realize that she didn't have raspberries, prompting her to kick her son out of his bed. He was just watching videos anyways, no issue there. For her at least. 

Despite his initial protest, Kyungsoo relished in the tranquilizing walk at night, the light night breeze and the lack of people in public allowed Kyungsoo to let thoughts run through his mind. 

Why was Baekhyun so hesitant about letting him come over? Were his parents fighting? Was his room a mess? 

"Or worse, his parents are serial killers!" Kyungsoo shut his mouth, realizing he let that last thought fly out of his mouth, at least no one heard it. He let himself over analyze the situation as he entered the supermarket.

To Kyungsoo, over analyzing is easy, all he has to do is look at one small situation and create 50 reasons for why it happened. By the time he reached check out, his brain had created a reasonable argument to how Baekhyun's family probably owned a weed farm in their backyard. 

Walking out of the building with the groceries in hand, Kyungsoo frowned seeing a boy his age down the street with his hand around a girl's waist. It was too dark to make out any features but the two were clearly on a date, or flirting at least. 

"Hmmm, he seems too young to date." Kyungsoo muttered to himself as a figure from the side suddenly caught his eye. 

"Goodnight Seulbi! I'll see you on Tuesday!" It was Baekhyun, he was walking out of a restaurant, dressed in casual clothes with an apron over top. 

Kyungsoo furrowed his eyebrows, Baekhyun never told him that he had a job, but it would explain the random days that Baekhyun couldn't hang out with him. Wait, how does Baekhyun work at a restaurant if he's dyslexic?

Realizing that he would take it as an opportunity to figure out where Baekhyun lived, it wasn't intruding, they lived in the same direction anyways.

Kyungsoo kept a fair distance between them, grateful that the dark jacket he was wearing would conceal his figure if Baekhyun turned around. But Baekhyun seemed to immersed in himself to care, he was humming a soft ballad and twirling a ring of keys - probably his house keys - on his fingers.

Whenever they walked home together, the duo would walk straight from the tteokbokki stand and break off the street before Kyungsoo's bakery, where he assumed that Baekhyun lived 5 minutes away. 

But Baekhyun took a left at the tteokbokki stand.

'That's weird'

Baekhyun continued his stroll and Kyungsoo continued to follow, the anticipation slowly starting to eat him away, maybe Baekhyun's parents really were serial killers if he couldn't even tell Kyungsoo his real address. 

And then Baekhyun stopped in front of a fairly large building and he walked into the front yard. Kyungsoo stopped from his spot across the street and gasped. 

"No way......................" 

"Hyung!" Two kids ran up to Baekhyun and he ruffled both of their heads. 

"Junkyu! Eunbi! It's almost midnight, what did I say about staying out late to wait for me?" 

"But hyung, you promised us that you'd sing us a song to sleep tonight!" Baekhyun laughed.

"Okay I did promise you that, but the tickle monster didn't!" The two kids ran away screaming as Baekhyun chased them inside. 

Kyungsoo stood there in shock, almost losing his grip on the grocery bag. He couldn't draw his gaze away from the sign posted in front of the building.

_**Sunny Hills Orphanage** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* 
> 
> Wow, I bet we all saw that coming :p 
> 
> My last exam is in like 12 hours *dies* but thank god! Before school starts again in like 2 week I hope to have like 5-6 chapters done? Idk I actually still work O-o so yeah we'll just see. 
> 
> I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter below <3 
> 
> And please stay safe!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A better understanding of Baekhyun's character, Baeksoo's friendship continues to grow but there's also love in the air?!?!?!!? *Baeksoo do not fall for each other DO NOT GET YOUR HOPES UP*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus christ I wrote basically 10k I AM SHOCKED
> 
> Okay enjoy xD

_**Do Kyungsoo - > ~~~** _

_**Byun Baekhyun - > ***** _

_**Park Chanyeol - > ///** _

_**Kim Jongin - > <3<3<3** _

*******

Byun Baekhyun was a not so simple person that lived a complicated life.

Despite common misconceptions about disabled people being more miserable than the average human being, Baekhyun lived a happy childhood. 

His whole family looked past his learning problems and loved him wholly. He remembers heartwarming memories of his mom holding him in her arms whenever he'd cry out in frustration when he couldn't read something. He remembers his brother taking his hand and running him through the field that resided in the neighbourhood they lived in, joyful shouts and countless hours spent where he could forget about his problems. He remembers how his dad would sing him to sleep with his soft, lulling voice. 

It was in his father's love for music that Baekhyun equally inherited that passion for music, he'd sing wherever and whenever he could, his mother used to talk to him many times after school about how the teacher had told her that he can't just burst out into song in the middle of class. But she never discouraged him, she always told him to keep chasing what he loved, and maybe that's why his mother would never stop getting those calls.

It was that love that gave Baekhyun the confidence to keep his head held up high even at a learning disadvantage at school, his classmates didn't mind that he had visual dyslexia because to kids, all that matters is how well you can play hide and seek and cops and robbers during recess, and Baekhyun was a pro at that. Even to this day, Baekhyun's thankful that he has gained this extraordinary level of perseverance because of his family.

He wanted singing and piano lessons, he knew his parents knew with how he would sit at their old piano every day, playing the simple nursery rhymes they taught in elementary school and singing them.

But money was tight, and Baekhyun knew that, so he never pressed the desire, but he knew his mother would look at him guiltily whenever they passed the same music academy on the way home from school. 

Then one day, when he was 9, his parents told him they had a surprise for him but he'd have to wait until after school to receive it. So he spent that whole day extra talkative and jittery, being scolded by the teacher a couple of times but it flew over his head, his parents never had a surprise for him. 

Baekhyun lived a happy childhood until he didn't. 

He waited after school for his parents to come for hours, falling asleep on the swing as the sun went down when a police officer showed up beside him, holding his hand out to the little boy and telling him to follow him. 

Without any relatives, Baekhyun would wake up the next day at the police station and soon he'd wake up every day at an orphanage to a blank wooden wall, not his mother's arms. 

He had received a box of his family's belongings and after enough scrounging around the box and asking the caretaker to read aloud his mother's journal for him, he fell to the floor in tears. 

We finally saved up enough money to enroll Baekhyun at the music academy! We're going to take him after school tomorrow to get him set up, I love my son so much and I hope he never gives up on his dreams.

Baekhyun didn't go to school for a year and he didn't know why the caretakers didn't bother to send any of the children at the orphanage to school.

He spent time playing with the children, he spent time huddled on his bed crying night after night, missing his family, and he spent time trying to figure out how to fight dyslexia. 

If his mother wanted him to chase his dreams, the least he could do was challenge his disability. The kids were eager to help and eventually, Baekhyun figured that he could get away with thinking about the words and writing with his eyes closed. Many of the older children helped him with the basic writing skills that they themselves knew, it was one of the only ways they could pass the time.

They hadn't bothered to try getting adopted, Baekhyun realized that after the first couple of visits from families, they tended to adopt only the infants and toddlers, so he had accepted his fate. 

Until the police raided the orphanage and found the owner as a part of an infamous drug ring in South Korea, all the government funds to send the orphans to school had gone towards the drug ring instead and thus, all the children were split up and relocated and Baekhyun found himself at _**Sunny Hills Orphanage**_

Just having turned 11, he reluctantly took the hand of the older woman who was trying to welcome him inside. 

Baekhyun went back to school, being placed in a year below his actual age because of the length of time he had missed, he didn't really mind, it wasn't that much of a hiccup. 

Baekhyun spent his days in elementary school and middle school working with learning support teachers and capitalizing on the strength he found in dyslexia. 

Baekhyun still wanted to pursue music, and though he knew that now there really was no way he'd get music lessons, he tried to teach himself at least. He felt guilty about stealing the piano books from the music department but he never got caught, so to him, it was fine.

He was amazed that he could read music sheets, he thought reading was a complete inability but there was something truly special with music.

One of the beginner books had a CD in it, and using an old CD player, Baekhyun eventually figured out the piano, and with the other books, played for the other children and himself whenever he could.

He grew closer to Yoona, and realizing he was the oldest at the orphanage by the time he turned 14, he took charge of being the best big brother the children never had. He was always happy to play with the children, despite the age gap. 

His social relationships at school were an entirely different story though. As his classmates got older, the more they stopped caring about him. It was like they grew self-conscious and were embarrassed at the thought of being friends with someone disabled, and they refused to get acquainted with him outside of simple morning greetings. So even though Baekhyun was still bubbly and extroverted, he was a complete outsider.

In high school, Baekhyun simply fought harder. 

He had found comfort in the recently debuted SHINee, and knew that, after watching their performance on TV, he wanted to be an idol, like them someday.

He tried to talk to everyone and he studied hard with the help of learning support, somehow placing in the top 10% which in a society that relied on these physical statistics, angered his peers instead of amazed them.

He was ridiculed and rumours spread out, criticizing the school for being more lenient on his grades because he was dyslexic, but the school never did that. He had to walk down the halls every day with insults throw his way and notes stuffed in his locker which he assumed were to taunt the fact that he couldn't read them. 

And still, he'd return back to the orphanage every day with a wide smile, caring for, playing with, and singing for all the younger kids. It was only when the last kid fell asleep would Baekhyun cry on the porch.

If Yoona knew, the most she did offer was a wordless hug before he left for school.

It wasn't her fault that Baekhyun never opened up to her, they did grow close, but Baekhyun was scared of opening up to her, he viewed their relationship more like a business transaction, knowing that the government would kick him out after he graduated high school and he felt it was pointless to tell her everything if she couldn't give him her full support in the end. 

Baekhyun really felt the effect of his school's hate for him after he had performed at the spring showcase, singing his heart out on stage as he played on the piano and the auditorium was silent as he finished, he still had smiled and bowed. He managed to keep it together until he reached a bathroom stall, and he cried his heart out.

Baekhyun both understood and couldn't understand why no one liked him, it was mind-boggling how a disability could earn him that much hate. There must've been a driving force. 

And that driving force made itself known. After a series of unfortunate events ( ** _which will be explained in a different chapter)_** , Baekhyun found himself leaving his old high school with a court case win in his hand and funding for him to go to a more expensive high school, a private school. 

Baekhyun knew Yoona felt sorry for him, after the incident, he had his moments of spacing out more often but he still covered it with enthusiastic energy for the children. So she let him relax for a month before he had to start at the new school. 

"Baekhyun." Yoona held his hand before he left the door for his new school. "I believe in you." 

Baekhyun tried to make himself late, he was scared of showing up. What if the same issues happened again? Or even worse now if people found out he wasn't actually paying to go to this school.

And that's the last thing he wanted.

When the school came into view, Baekhyun decided he needed a clean slate and held his head high, just like his mother told him, he was going to walk into that building and be himself and if no one was going to like him, then it was their loss.

He found his classroom thanks to directions from a passing teacher. 

"Hello! Is this Mr. Yoon's room? Room 217?" The teacher smiled at him, "Why yes, that's the right room, but my name is Mr. Shin."

"Oh..." The student rubbed the nape of his neck sheepishly, "Sorry, I must've read it wrong. I'm the new student." Baekhyun gulped as he scanned the classroom, he already knew he made a colossal slip-up and from the way his classmates were already whispering, they figured he was dyslexic already. Even his teacher was looking at him blankly.

"So, can I come in?" Baekhyun knocked Mr. Shin out of his trance. 

"Sorry, my mind drifted somewhere, yes you may! Please introduce yourself to the class, and class, remember what we talked about, please greet him warmly." Baekhyun took a breath, he was going to stay positive until someone actually insulted him.

He tried to be as cheery as possible, "Hello guys! I'm Byun Baekhyun, please take care of me." Baekhyun offered a slight bow and the class let out a warmer "welcome" then he expected, Baekhyun smiled to himself, maybe he still made a good first impression.

"Now Baekhyun, there are a few empty seats because of absences today but please take the empty seat beside Kyungsoo." Baekhyun squinted at all the nametags on the desks, trying to figure out which desk read Kyungsoo. He figured that since his disability was already out in the open, there was no point in trying to hide it.

"Kyungsoo, kyungsoo, kyungsoo." He muttered to himself for the brief moment he tried to figure it out. The teacher covered for him quickly.

"It's nice to meet you Kyungsoo." Baekhyun didn't hesitate to extend the warm greeting to Kyungsoo, who blinked back at him for a moment. Kyungsoo took Baekhyun's hand, shook it, and nodded.

"It's very nice to meet you." Something about the way Kyungsoo spoke tugged at Baekhyun, in their short instance of physical contact, Baekhyun felt like he could imagine a future with Kyungsoo at his side, staying up late with him to chat about random things and to offer him advice when he'd make a mess of himself

Maybe this was the sign Baekhyun was looking for

Baekhyun smiled widely, "Kyungsoo I can tell that we're going to be great friends." 

There's so much you have to learn about someone, and Baekhyun knew that there was so much he had to learn about Kyungsoo, and he hoped himself that one day he'd be able to tell Kyungsoo everything.

But sometimes, the unwanted information may come out when he doesn't want it to.

"Byun Baekhyun hm?" Baekhyun sat across the table from his new learning support teacher, she had just picked him up when their class started literature and she was now reading over his information as he sat, watching her eyes flicker over the paper. 

Baekhyun internally winced when he noticed her eyes linger to long on a piece of information, he wondered which part about him she was reading, the fact that he was living at an orphanage? His situation from his last high school? But he didn't even know what the paper said.

"Well Baekhyun," She locked eyes with him, "I'm reading the remarks from your past learning support teachers and they've noted the exemplary performance and perseverance you've shown in spite of your dyslexia." Baekhyun's eyes glanced at the paper, hoping to catch a glimpse of what she was reading was true but he forgot he couldn't read it. 

"Thank you." He muttered, taken aback by the praises.

"Don't worry, there's nothing personal here. The paper talks about the kind of dyslexia you have and what you've been working on so you don't have to explain it to me, I think we'll get along well." Mrs. Lee held out her hand to Baekhyun, he felt more relaxed and reciprocated it. 

Overtime Baekhyun found that this school was different from his other school, his classmates were willing to talk to him, people actually wanted to talk to him! Even if he was the closest to Kyungsoo, he was glad that his classmates were willing to look out for him and hearing the rumours about him being a cool person warmed his heart.

He was ready to turn a new page, albeit a damaged one, one with a few dents in it that may surface over time, but he was ready to move on.

**~~~**

Much to Kyungsoo's delight, Baekhyun had joined Kyungsoo in the cafeteria and started helping him in the cafeteria the following week. He couldn't turn down the idea of free food after hearing that strawberry tarts were the dessert on Wednesdays. Plus, it gave him more time to be around Kyungsoo. However, there was one thing about the cafeteria food that Kyungsoo hadn't warned him about, Kyungsoo didn't even realize that he had to warn him about it.

"Yuck!" Kyungsoo was stirring a large pot of miso soup when Baekhyun started gagging from across the kitchen. He was working on the salads and one of the cafeteria ladies was already trying to figure out what was wrong. 

"Are you okay Baekhyun? What's wrong?' The cafeteria lady asked, Kyungsoo abandoned his pot and was beside Baekhyun, patting his back. 

"The salad *cough*, I can smell it *cough* the cucumber." 

"What?" Kyungsoo shared a look with the cafeteria lady. 

"I can't stand cucumber! That smell is killing me ack!" Baekhyun dramatically fell to his knees and reached his hand towards Kyungsoo. "Save me *cough* switch stations!" The cafeteria lady already walked away, unfazed at typical teenager antics. 

"You didn't tell me that you hated cucumber?" Kyungsoo mused as he pulled Baekhyun up. 

"Hate is not a strong enough word for my relationship with cucumber, cucumber is my #1 nemesis! And it never came up because you never tried to poison me with it at your house!" Kyungsoo laughed. 

"Haha okay noted, we can switch but hurry up or else!" Kyungsoo drew out a cucumber slice from behind his back that he swiped from the bowl while Baekhyun was on the ground, the sight of the vegetable sent Baekhyun screaming and running for the miso soup. Shoving his nose over the rising steam and exhaling in relief at the nose cleanse he received. 

"I'll get you for this!" Baekhyun said as they both went out to the food lines as lunch started. 

*******

"Mrs. Lee?" Baekhyun was watching his learning support teacher review the writing exercises they had done for the day, he normally let her be but today he couldn't get the thought out of his head. 

"Yes, Baekhyun?" She asked, not lifting her head from the paper. 

"Have you ever felt bad?" 

"Everyone feels bad about something Baekhyun."

"I mean," Baekhyun started to fidget. "Have you ever lied to someone you were really close to, like your best friend?" Mrs. Lee looked up at Baekhyun. 

"I have," She looked remorseful, "Not my proudest moment. You know Baekhyun," She set his paper down and retained eye contact with him, "The morality of lying or simply not telling the truth depends on the perspective that you look at a situation in. Take this for example."

She placed an apple in front of Baekhyun, to him, it was perfectly round and ripe, shining under the light. "What do you see Baekhyun?" 

"I see a delicious looking apple." Mrs.Lee nodded.

"See, that's what you think," She turned the apple around revealing the other half was eaten, "But this apple didn't show you it was half-eaten, now this goes both ways, this apple lied about its appearance because it didn't want you to be disgusted or it lied about its appearance because it wanted to deceive you." She tossed the apple in the trash.

"That was a shallow example but the point is, even if you can justify it, it's always hurting someone, usually the one who's doing the lying." She picked up Baekhyun's paper again. 

"I won't press you on the matter Baekhyun but," She offered him a small smile, "Do what you think is best for you." Baekhyun was speechless and returned only a small nod.

If he wanted Kyungsoo to truly care for him, he shouldn't hide his true self from Kyungsoo. 

They never helped in the cafeteria on Fridays, so when Baekhyun found Kyungsoo in their classroom waiting for him to return from learning support as lunch started, he made up his mind. 

"You look worried? Did something happen in learning support?" Baekhyun shook his head. 

"No, but I was thinking, let's go to my house after school today." He was expecting Kyungsoo to get excited at the idea, but Kyungsoo put a hand on his shoulder with an unreadable expression. 

"I'd love to." He spoke softly, his lips turning up ever so slightly. 

**~~~**

After Kyungsoo found out that Baekhyun lived at an orphanage, he decided not to press the older about it, it felt like a grave sin for knowing something that he wasn't supposed to yet. 

The days following the discovery, Kyungsoo realized that Baekhyun was really good at hiding the fact that he didn't have a family. Baekhyun was a constant ray of optimism and energy, filling Kyungsoo's empty thoughts with hilarious rants about observations he's made about their classmates, discussing music production, and seemingly filling any silent void by talking about anything. Baekhyun could somehow create a 5-minute conversation about a ladybug that just flew by because of all of the implications you get from seeing one.

Even when Kyungsoo's mom asked Baekhyun about his family one time at dinner, Kyungsoo watched Baekhyun unfazed, switch the conversation over to a movie about two brothers and his mother didn't even seem to notice.

And yet, Baekhyun could be quiet when he needed to be, Kyungsoo figures it has to do with the fact that Baekhyun actually has to think hard whenever he does anything related to school so when they do homework together, a peaceful silence looms over the duo. 

Baekhyun did have his moments where he'd space out, Kyungsoo liked to make fun of him for those because his nostrils would flare and it'd be funny to see. But Kyungsoo always attributed that to the idea that Baekhyun probably overanalyzed thoughts as he did, or maybe now Baekhyun was thinking about his past before the orphanage.

Kyungsoo figured that Baekhyun would take a while to open up to him, and he was completely okay with that, but Baekhyun opened up quicker than he expected. 

They never helped in the cafeteria on Fridays, so when Baekhyun returned from learning support to the classroom, his serious expression worried Kyungsoo, he never was one to be that serious, that was Kyungsoo's job. 

"You look worried? Did something happen in learning support?" Kyungsoo asked but Baekhyun shook his head. 

"No, but I was thinking, let's go to my house after school today." Kyungsoo stared at Baekhyun blankly, overwhelmed at the fact that he was already going to be introduced to the orphanage, and he knew his current expression would probably confuse Baekhyun so he quickly covered it by putting his hand on Baekhyun's shoulder. 

"I'd love to," Kyungsoo spoke softly, his lips turning up ever so slightly. 

On their walk home from school, Kyungsoo could tell that Baekhyun was nervous about what his reaction would be, Baekhyun was still talking about everything, but he stuttered over too many words and he was way too animate with his gestures, it was like he was trying to summon a demon with his hands. 

"And then J-jongdae said that h-he flipped her off and she practically murdered him with h-her eyes, like you do all the time!" Baekhyun's arms were really flapping all over the place as he tried to describe one of Jongdae's accounts of screwing with one of the seniors. 

Then as Kyungsoo expected, they took a left at the tteokbokki stand. Baekhyun had stopped talking, looking over Kyungsoo's face for any reaction to the fact that Baekhyun never said he lived in that direction. 

Kyungsoo offered Baekhyun a warm smile and encouraged him to keep leading the way. 

After another of Baekhyun's stories with gestures that had only grown wilder, they stopped in front of the orphanage

"Um, we're here." Baekhyun gestured to the _ **Sunny Hills Orphanage**_ sign, still trying to gauge Kyungsoo's reaction. 

"Cool." Kyungsoo smiled wide at Baekhyun, Baekhyun looked shocked that he wasn't reacting negatively at all.

"Baekhyun hyung!" A few kids were running out of the house towards the duo. "You never come home early on Fridays!" One of the kids spoke up. 

"I know Sanghee, I always go to my friend's house." Baekhyun gestured to Kyungsoo, a girl stood in front of Kyungsoo and scrutinized him, "Your boyfriend?" 

"No!" Kyungsoo glared at her, he couldn't help it, "We're best friends." Baekhyun added, patting the girl's hair to calm her down after witnessing his cursed glare.

"Now shoo," Baekhyun ushered the kids away, "I'm going to talk with my friend for a bit, then we'll play okay?" 

"Okay hyung!" The kids said in unison, and grabbed a nearby soccer ball and started playing in the front yard. 

Baekhyun led Kyungsoo to sit down on a bench with him under a tree, they watched the kids kick around the ball for a while, Baekhyun remaining silent. Kyungsoo decided he was going to let Baekhyun talk first, he didn't want to accidentally start the conversation on the wrong foot. 

Baekhyun picked at a loose thread on his uniform pants for a while, humming a soft spring song. He was taking kind of long to start talking, wanting to give him some sort of signal to say anything, Kyungsoo put his hand on top of Baekhyun's and patted it.

Baekhyun looked up at Kyungsoo wordlessly for another minute before he finally spoke.

"You didn't look shocked at all, um, you didn't even react like I expected you to." Kyungsoo smiled sheepishly at what Baekhyun said.

"It's because I already knew." Baekhyun was taken aback, his nervous demeanour already shedding away. 

"What!? Is it because you can read my mind? Are we more attuned than I thought?" Kyungsoo shook his head. 

"No I sort of, I saw you walking home from a restaurant last Saturday night and I followed you home, I'm sorry!" Kyungsoo bowed apologetically. "I should've waited for you to tell me." 

"It's okay," Baekhyun kicked a soccer ball that was flying towards them, "Junhee if you don't watch where you're kicking the tickle monster will attack you tonight!" That earned a protest from the accused kid and he ran away screaming. 

"But why," Baekhyun plucked a high weed poking out of the bench. "Why didn't you confront me for it? They always do that on T.V, someone lies and it turns into a huge standoff." 

"Your life isn't mine so I don't have the right to stick my nose in your business if you don't want me too. I know I crossed the line but I'll respect your privacy until you really tell me." Baekhyun smiled at the genuine statement. 

"But from now on," Kyungsoo continued. "you can trust me, tell me everything that troubles you okay?" 

Kyungsoo noticed how Baekhyun unconsciously frowned as if he wasn't ready to say something else. "But only tell me when you're ready, okay?" Kyungsoo finished. 

"I will. Thank you." 

"Baekhyun hyung! Play with us!" The kids were shouting at holding their soccer ball, Baekhyun turned to Kyungsoo with a smile on his lips, "Shall we play with them?" 

"You're going down!" Kyungsoo shouted at him and ran up to the kids, Baekhyun laughed to himself and caught up to him. Maybe he was the shoulder that Baekhyun really needed. 

They played for an hour, working up a sweat as the teams constantly traded goals on each other, by the time dinner was ready, Kyungsoo realized how sweaty he had become. He shivered at the feeling of his slightly damp shirt but let it go, he was glad that he was able to put a smile on everyone's faces. 

When Baekhyun led Kyungsoo inside, he was greeted by a middle-aged woman wearing glasses and an apron from cooking. 

"Kyungsoo, this is Ms. Lim, or you can call her Yoona if she wants." He was about to keep talking but one of the kids tugged him away.

"It's nice to finally meet you Kyungsoo, I'm Lim Yoona, the owner and main caretaker for the orphanage." They both bowed to each other, "Baekhyun's talked about you a few times." 

"He has?" Kyungsoo asked when Yoona handed him a small handkerchief to wipe his sweat.

"Not that explicitly, he talks about how happy he is to bond so closely with someone. I already know that he's a social butterfly but it wasn't easy for him at his old high school." 

"What happened to him?" 

"I'm sure he'll tell you when he's ready." She winked at him and gestured him to follow her to the dining room, "Now, I cooked a lot, as usual, and I saw you running so please help yourself." 

Kyungsoo nodded before following her to the kitchen where a line of food was placed on a table about 6 feet in length. Kyungsoo could tell that Yoona was on a budget, considering the simplicity of the options, but he could tell how much love she put into it judging from how perfectly cooked the dishes were, his mother would be proud of him for putting his culinary senses to good use. 

"Can I ask how you run this orphanage?" Kyungsoo asked as they stood side by side, putting food on their plates.

"Yeah, as all orphanages, I take in any homeless kids from infancy to adulthood." Yoona said, "But since only one of me so I only have 25 kids, including Baekhyun." She picked up a piece of kimbap and placed it on her plate. 

"When did Baekhyun come here?" 

"He showed up when he was 11, as you can see from the ages of the children here, I do prefer to take in older kids that have a lower chance of being adopted, the least I can do is secure a stable place for them to stay until they become adults." 

"So he came from a different orphanage?"

"I'm not sure honestly, the police gave him to me but they wouldn't tell me anything and even though Baekhyun is close to me, he hasn't told me what happened." She handed Kyungsoo a pair of chopsticks to eat with. "I would watch out for Baekhyun, he's really good at hiding things." 

"I can tell." Yoona smiled. 

"I bet he didn't tell you that he lived here right?" At Kyungsoo's nod, she laughed a little bit.

"Well, eat up, one of the kids are sick upstairs so I'm just going to go help him eat, I'll see you." She left the room. Kyungsoo decided to not dwell on the thoughts of Baekhyun's past, he wasn't really in the mood to overanalyze something. 

"She didn't tell you any embarrassing stories did she?" Baekhyun appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey! I'm holding food, don't give me a heart attack!" Baekhyun smirked.

"Anyways, the kids want to watch a movie in the living room, wanna eat there?" 

"Sure." 

Kyungsoo spent some time there eating with all the kids as they watched Frozen for what seemed to be the umpteenth time because they knew all the lyrics by heart. After eating, he figured he'd give Yoona a hand and do the dishes with Baekhyun helping him. They were close enough to dwell in comfortable silence, even though Kyungsoo knew that Baekhyun liked to ramble about anything if he could, Baekhyun was oddly quiet, he eventually spoke up after 10 minutes.

"I was thinking." Kyungsoo hummed, signalling Baekhyun to keep going, "I heard that SM is holding auditions in three weeks."

"Oh really?" Kyungsoo said.

"Yeah, I heard some of our classmates talking about it today. I think Joohyun said she was going. I wonder what she would do, I don't think she can sing that well but I've seen her dance, she's pretty good." 

"I'll go with you." Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo.

"You will?" Kyungsoo smiled. 

"Of course, I know that's what you were going to ask me." 

"Yay! You're the best!" Baekhyun hugged Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo could feel the wet dishcloth that Baekhyun was holding seep into his skin.

"Yah!" Kyungsoo shook Baekhyun off. 

"Sorry." Baekhyun said, "But what song do you think I should do?" 

"Hmmm there are too many possibilities, maybe we should ask Jongdae for help." 

The duo went over their options while they did the dishes, concluding with no idea because Baekhyun kept wanting to sing every song listed. They spent another couple of hours with the children before Kyungsoo had to go back home because he had to help open the bakery the following Saturday morning. Baekhyun offered to walk home with him, more or less grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the orphanage. 

"I remember, you said you saw me leaving a restaurant?" Baekhyun mused as they came across the tteokbokki stand, turning to the left. 

"Yeah, I didn't even know you had a job." Kyungsoo pouted.

"Sorry about that, but I know what you're thinking!" Baekhyun turned to Kyungsoo, "You're wondering how I could be a waiter at a restaurant right?" Kyungsoo stammered out a response, knowing that Baekhyun got him dead on. Baekhyun laughed at his reaction and continued. 

"I'm not a waiter, I'm just a busboy," Baekhyun said.

"Wait that makes sense." Kyungsoo mentally facepalmed for not realizing that earlier. 

"It's fun, I can sing and do the dishes and the chefs don't mind, they only mind if I splash around too much water. And I guess I should explain." Baekhyun picked at the corner of his sleeve. "I started working at the restaurant last year to start saving for university but I had to start picking up more shifts because you know when I got that phone call at your house? Yoona called me because one of the kids got diagnosed with leukemia, she might've mentioned it to you today." 

"Oh," Kyungsoo said, realizing that it was for the kid that Yoona brought dinner to earlier. 

"Anyway yeah so-" 

"Wait!" Kyungsoo grabbed Baekhyun's shoulder to stop him from crossing the intersection. A truck whizzed past Baekhyun's face, it's logo of _**Park Interiors**_ flashing by in a blur. 

"Woah, thanks!" Baekhyun shot him a box smile. 

"Do you have enough money for university?" Baekhyun shrugged. 

"Kind of, I split off a portion of the savings to contribute to Minki's treatment, but you know, loans are a thing." 

"But you want to be an idol too, so why do you still want to go to university?" 

"To study music silly!" Baekhyun nudged him lightly, "Part-time university and a full-time idol life is becoming a trend you know." 

"I guess." The two of them reached Kyungsoo's bakery. "And our school....." 

Kyungsoo didn't mean to let the last comment slip out since they go to a private high school, which has a hefty tuition fee, Kyungsoo was wondering how Baekhyun got the money for that, was Yoona giving him enough?" 

"Oh that," Baekhyun looked at the ground, "We'll talk about it some other time okay?" 

"Yeah, we can. I'll text you later? Or facetime?"

"Of course. Goodnight Kyungsoo!" 

*******

The following week the school was giving out free lunches in celebration for the principal's birthday. 

"What a bizarre occasion to celebrate, is he self-centred?" Baekhyun whispered to Kyungsoo as they stood side by side at a counter, placing pre-packed lunch boxes onto carts that they were supposed to bring to every classroom. 

"No one knows but I think he's lonely and has no one to celebrate with at home so he has taken the liberty of forcing hundreds of teenagers to know of the day he was born." Baekhyun snickered at what Kyungsoo said.

"That's funny." 

"I know right? Which group of carts do you want to handle?" Kyungsoo gestured to the dozens of carts surrounding them, the high school had three grades (10, 11, 12) and had about 10-12 carts for each grade. A few other students and the cafeteria ladies were helping so they both only had to handle 1-2 classrooms. 

Baekhyun glanced at all the carts, trying to find the number he wanted, forgetting that he couldn't read. 

"I can't read the numbers." Kyungsoo looked at Baekhyun, "Wait, HAHA I forgot that I'm dyslexic." Kyungsoo broke into a wide grin and doubled over in laughter. 

"Hahahaha, let's see then," Kyungsoo looked at all the numbers, "Is there a certain grade you wanted?" 

"Oh yes," Baekhyun's eyes sparkled, "I need to connect with people my age, give me some carts for the seniors." Kyungsoo nodded.

"Okay, here you go, this is for classes 12-3 and 12-4." Kyungsoo gestured to four carts in the corner. "I'll handle 12-1 and 12-2 so that we can walk together." 

The duo set off, Baekhyun fawned over the cinnamon buns in each of the lunch boxes and he could feel his mouth water as they reached the senior classes. 

"Calm down, I can see the drool spilling out of your mouth," Kyungsoo said. "You already know that my bakery gave the desserts for today so you can have all the cinnamon buns you want later." Baekhyun pouted.

"Okay." And then they went off towards their respective classrooms. The task was simple, greet the class and give everyone their lunch boxes, then take the carts back to the cafeteria, it would also mean that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo wouldn't have to stay in the cafeteria for a long time today since no one was going to buy food. 

Baekhyun dealt with 12-3 swiftly, giving everyone a wide smile as he gave them their boxes and left. 

And then 12-4 happened. 

"It's the one and only Byun Baekhyun!" Jongdae was in that class and shouting at Baekhyun's arrival. The burst of excitement indicated that he wasn't expecting to see Baekhyun. After handling the choir miscommunication, the duo talked enough in the halls and around school grounds for Baekhyun to consider them friends.

"Kim Jongdae sit down!" His teacher commanded disapprovingly, Jongdae sat and resumed talking to the people around him. "Welcome, you must be here with the food?" 

"Yeah," Baekhyun gestured to the carts by the door, "Can you have the students line up one by one to receive their food?" The teacher nodded and announced the instructions to the class as Baekhyun situated himself at the food. 

The students were polite, giving a small word of gratitude to Baekhyun as he gave them their box. He thought the task would finish in a heartbeat.

"Don't just stand there, move!" Jongdae's voice boomed through Baekhyun's ears and prompted him to look behind the girl he just gave a box to. Jongdae was trying to shove his friend to come up to Baekhyun but he was frozen on his spot. 

Baekhyun locked eyes with the guy and felt his heart stop, he wasn't going to finish this task in a heartbeat if his heart stopped beating. 

The guy was taller than Jongdae and Baekhyun for sure, his hair was unstyled and sat on his head like a fluffy cloud. He had large doe eyes that rivalled Kyungsoo's and elf-like ears tinged red that adorably poked out of the sides of his head. All in all, he was more handsome than any member of SHINee.

Wait, there exists a man that was more handsome than SHINee? 

The guy eventually made it in front of Baekhyun, who wordlessly handed him a box, Baekhyun felt tongue-tied and the best he could offer was a smile. 

"Thanks." The guy spoke in a soft, low voice and walked back to his seat with his head held low. Baekhyun was stunned until Jongdae started snickering.

"Sorry that was my friend, he's such a mess sometimes," Jongdae took the lunch box from Baekhyun, "Thanks Baek, I'll see you around!" 

Baekhyun snapped out of his reverie and tried to recover. 

"Enjoy the food!" Baekhyun bowed and left the classroom. Kyungsoo was waiting for him. 

"You took longer than I expected, why is your face red?" Baekhyun put a hand to his cheek and felt it burn, he didn't even realize he was blushing. "You didn't drop a box did you?" 

"No, it was hot in that classroom." Baekhyun lied. Kyungsoo gave him a look of disbelief. 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah come on, let's hurry and give these carts back so that we have more of lunch to spend together!"

As the duo walked, Baekhyun put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart beating fast. He wasn't used to this feeling. 

**~~~**

It was almost another typical lunch day for Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, except Baekhyun was given a special task of making sandwiches for a teacher's meeting happening after school so it was only Kyungsoo dealing with the line of students today. Kyungsoo was handling jjajangmyeon and Baekhyun was working at a counter somewhere behind Kyungsoo, he could hear his humming. 

Everything was going smoothly until Kyungsoo sensed an abrupt stop in the flow of the students. He normally stood there with a neutral smile on his face and let the students pass him, grabbing a bowl of jjajangmyeon if they wanted one and he would add more as necessary. But then some random guy idly stopped in front of Kyungsoo, he seemed spaced out, clearly looking over Kyungsoo, well that was easy anyways due to their height difference. 

Kyungsoo quickly tried to trace where the guy was looking glancing behind him and the only option seemed to be Baekhyun unless one of the cafeteria ladies caught his eyes.

Was he really looking at Baekhyun?

He looked like a senior but Kyungsoo's sworn he's never seen this guy before. Kyungsoo would've left the guy alone but students were awkwardly reaching over him for jjajangmyeon so he had to step in.

"Hi! Did you want a bowl jjajangmyeon?" The greeting knocked the man out of his thoughts and he blinked at Kyungsoo once before grabbing a bowl and putting it on his tray.

He mumbled a quick "thank you" and was on his way. 

"Yo Soo!" Jongdae showed up in front of Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo cringed at the hipster greeting, making Jongdae laugh out loud, he was always loud like Baekhyun.

But seeing Jongdae in the cafeteria was strange, he was pretty sure he's never seen Jongdae eat cafeteria food for lunch, let alone be inside the cafeteria at all.

"Wait." Kyungsoo smacked Jongdae's hand away from the jjajangmyeon (earning a pout from the older), "I've never seen you here......" He squinted his eyes. 

"Yeah....... it's because I don't like eating this junk that claims it's healthy." Jongdae laughed at Kyungsoo's deadly stare, why was he immune to it? "Relax, I usually go out for lunch but Chanyeol forgot his wallet today so we're scrimping on food costs." Jongdae pointed to the tall guy that made a fool of himself in front of Kyungsoo and emphasized the 'forgot' with two eye rolls. "I'll see you in choir Soo!" Jongdae grabbed the bowl from Kyungsoo's hand and trodded off.

Hmmmmm, maybe....... Kyungsoo closed his eyes in thought If Jongdae said it like that then 

"Uh sorry, is there more jjajangmyeon?" A younger girl snapped Kyungsoo out of his thoughts before he succumbed to over-analyzing again, he realized that his counter was empty. 

He grabbed an empty bowl from the stack and gave an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I'll get you some." 

**~~~**

"Did you talk to Jongdae yet?" 

"Yeah he said he'd give me some song recommendations tonight I think." Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were walking to their lockers at the end of the day to see a few people standing by Baekhyun's locker. 

"Woah is there a party at my locker?" Excited, Baekhyun sped up and ditched Kyungsoo, weaving through the few people blocking his way to his locker and looked at it. There was a paper heart stuck on the door, with writing on it but even if he shoved his face against it, he couldn't really read it. The people standing by Baekhyun's locker walked away when he showed up.

"Kyungsoo? What does that say?" Kyungsoo made his way to Baekhyun. 

I think you're really cute. It was scrawled in a simple black pen

Kyungsoo quirked an eyebrow at the message, did they even know that Baekhyun was dyslexic?

"The note says that whoever wrote it thinks you're cute, I think they're blind." 

"Hey!" Baekhyun pouted, but it was quickly replaced by giddy excitement. "Wait, is this what I think it is?" He plucked the heart off and held it to his chest.

"Well, it looks like a love note." 

"Thanks for stating the obvious." Baekhyun stuck his tongue out, "But oh my god! I know one thing for sure!" 

"What?"

"They're not in our class!" 

"Why, oh wait, it's because they wrote something right? Everyone in our class at least knows that you're dyslexic." Baekhyun nodded. 

"Yeah but," He shivered, "that still leaves 2/3 of the school. Hmmm, I have no clue, do you?" Baekhyun asked. 

Kyungsoo shook his head, "No idea. But since you've caught someone's eye, shall we celebrate with lots of tteokbokki today? I'll treat you." Baekhyun raised his arms in victory.

They gathered their things and left the school, missing the figure that was hiding in the vacant classroom listening in on their conversation. 

"So that's the game he wants to play? He's got it coming for him.........." 

**///**

"Thanks a lot, Jongdae." 

'I'll make it up to you tomorrow or something I swear." Jongdae whispered through his teeth as Chanyeol grabbed his water bottle and left the classroom. 

Chanyeol blames his friend Jongdae, the one with the loudest mouth in the classroom, to somehow get him in trouble for being disruptive when Jongdae receives at least 10 short lectures from the teacher every day. 

Chanyeol blames Jongdae for the joke thrown out of how one of the girls in the classroom had her obvious breast padding poking out of her shirt. Earning a boisterous laugh from Chanyeol that for some reason didn't result in detention, but a session with learning support?

"I'm not going to give you detention for your upstanding behaviour," His teacher, Mr.Choi said, "But, learning support is short an assistant today so you can go help them while the history teacher shows the documentary to your class." Chanyeol mentally cheered, he would get to skip a boring documentary. "I can see the look in your eyes, that means you have to watch it at home." 

Chanyeol groaned, there goes that thought. "Now go over there." 

Chanyeol blames Jongdae for somehow cursing him to end up in a blessed situation as he stumbled into the learning support room, only to see the cute boy that was giving out food before. 

He knew his name was Baekhyun, Jongdae had mentioned it to him before, he was wearing headphones and had his eyes closed, he was slowly writing on a piece of paper. His bangs were slightly falling over his eyes and his lips were tightly pressed in concentration. To Chanyeol, it was adorable.

"Oh hi! You must be Chanyeol? Mr. Choi just called me, I'm Mrs. Lee." The teacher sitting with the boy came up to Chanyeol and spoke to him in hushed whispers. 

"Yeah." Chanyeol wasn't sure what to say. 

"Baekhyun's taking a test so try to stay quiet, Ms. Kim will show you what she needs help with." 

Chanyeol made his way to the far end of the room where Ms. Kim was sitting with a stack of papers. But Chanyeol wasn't sure why Baekhyun was in learning support, he seemed perfectly normal when he visited his classroom. 

"Hi Chanyeol," The young woman smiled at him from her desk, "Even though one of the assistants called in sick, the other students that were supposed to come in actually didn't come to school today, it must be hay fever season." Ms. Kim handed Chanyeol a small stack of papers. 

"Since we have some extra time, we want to get a headstart on grading some of the assessments that the students here have done so if you'll look, you'll see a short description of each student's disability and what the assessment is trying to test. Just go through them and proofread or mark the sheets accordingly and write down any notes on it. Thanks." She motioned for him to sit down at the table with her, so he did, and wordlessly grabbed the offered pen and started. 

_**Lee Minkyung, High-functioning Autism. Honors Physics Test.** _

Chanyeol let out a soft gasp as he flipped the sheet and saw a few pages of paper with complicated formulas scribbled all over them, thankfully there was an answer key attached to it. 

The teacher with him giggled at his reaction. "Surprised? It's amazing actually, some people with autism are still really intelligent, we think she may have Aspergers, which is where she is only socially awkward but we're still running a few observations and tests to define it." Chanyeol nodded and marked the test, circling a 90% in red and placing it to the side. 

_**Choi Kyumin, Severe ADHD. Timed test to track his progress on not getting distracted.** _

It was a more simple math test, but it was only 80% complete, Chanyeol felt sorry for the student as he ended up giving it a 65% and putting it away. 

_**Byun Baekhyun, Visual Dyslexia, Written Comprehension Paragraph.** _

Chanyeol's eyes widened and looked back at the boy whose back was turned to him, still with his headphones on and writing as Mrs. Lee sat in front of him and was writing something down. Chanyeol would've never, in a million years, realized the Baekhyun had this disability just from looking at him.

"Oh perfect you reached Baekhyun, I wanted to actually go over that one with you, he's constantly shown strong results even in his old school so now we're stepping it up for him. For his assessment, he had to listen to an excerpt from a book and write a paragraph correlating with the given question within 45 minutes. You give me your opinion on what he wrote and then we'll see what grade he should get." 

"Okay." Chanyeol bit his lip and stole one more glance at Baekhyun, even with a disadvantage in life, it made him even more amazing. He started reading.

_**In The Little Prince, what is the significance behind the adult's reaction towards the pilot's drawing of a mouse eaten by a Boa Constrictor?** _

*Author's note, here is some context in that scene if you haven't read that book

  * When the pilot was a kid, he drew an elephant getting eaten by a boa constrictor, but he drew it as a lump without details so adults only assumed he was drawing a hat, even after the pilot made the details clear, adults insisted that he try to pursue a career that doesn't rely on creativity and goes for *material value*




**The drawing is described as a lump and the elephant is something that you assume is inside the snake. Therefore, the adults are not willing to look through the lump and see the elephant and this implies that adults take things too literally or they tend to judge a book by its cover. This also entails that adults cannot see with the heart, they grow up in demanding societies that rely on material effort so they do not care about anything that does not affect them directly.**

**People already start to show this disposition in high school, no one was willing to become friends with me because, at an initial glance, I offer no benefit for friendship because I am disabled. Chanyeol's breath hitched.**

**That is until I moved to this school, someone is finally seeing me for what I am and giving me a chance. This is, in turn, causing other people to welcome me into their lives.**

**I hope that, unlike the pilot, I will not succumb to society as I grow older, I want to be an adult that can connect with the world because I am willing to look past the surface. I want to inspire the world and demonstrate the beauty of seeing one with the heart.**

Chanyeol reflected on the ending. _'I wish I was the first person to truly see him.'_ He thought. 

"So, what do you think Chanyeol?" Ms. Kim asked. 

"I, wow." Chanyeol was still shocked by reading it, he doesn't know what was more shocking, the fact that a dyslexic person wrote like that or that Baekhyun had to go through that. 

"It was amazing." Ms. Kim beamed at him. 

"It's pretty solid, the connection to personal life was interesting, what grade do you think he should get?" 

"100%?" Ms. Kim shook her head.

"Because he's so advanced we're trying to grade him as we would for a normal high school student, I think he used a couple of cliche phrases and the writing is borderline illegible in some places but that's a given because he writes with his eyes closed, I also saw a couple of obvious spelling mistakes so I was going to give him 85% but shall we meet halfway and give him 92%?"

Chanyeol couldn't really argue with that, she was a teacher after all so he only muttered a simple 'okay'. She hummed in acknowledgement and wrote her comments on the paper and underlined the grade on the bottom. She got up and walked over to Mrs. Lee and Baekhyun.

Baekhyun had finished whatever he was doing and was in a conversation with Mrs. Lee.

"Everything's looking good Baekhyun." Ms. Kim handed Baekhyun his sheet but since he couldn't read it, she discussed all her critiques with him and Chanyeol could only watch him nod.

"You're really outdoing yourself Baekhyun." Mrs. Lee said. "I think with the fact that teachers are slowly adding more homework online and that university is more computer heavy, we should start working with keyboards in a few weeks. Even though the symbols are on the keyboard, people actually have good muscle memory of what keys to type over time so it would be good to finalize a few more writing things tomorrow then get to typing on Monday."

"Really?" Baekhyun spoke in an excited tone, Chanyeol thought it was so precious. 

"Yeah, oh look at the time." Mrs. Lee looked at the clock, there were 15 minutes left before lunch started, "Do you have to go help in the cafeteria today?"

"Yes, I do." 

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." Chanyeol watched Baekhyun gather his belongings and bow to both of the teachers before exiting the room, he hadn't seen Chanyeol. 

"How does he write then?" Chanyeol had asked Mrs. Lee when she came over to see if he was done marking papers. 

"Oh, you were pretty amazed by his writing right? Well, he only he visual dyslexia which means that while it is hard for him to read and write, he can process it in his brain if he thinks about it instead or hears it. So he's adapted to writing with his eyes closed, relying on his muscle memory to write the hangul, and I must say he does an exemplary job." Mrs. Lee explained. 

"He's probably a role model student now, with his volunteering in the cafeteria and his participation in the school choir." Ms. Kim added on. 

Chanyeol's lips formed an 'o', he was speechless. 

"Anyways Chanyeol since you finished early you can head back to class as well. Thank you for helping." Mrs. Lee smiled warmly at him and held the door for him on his way out. 

Chanyeol put a hand to his beating heart as he walked down the hallway, even after learning about his disability, he swears Baekhyun gets even more perfect the more he hears about him and he still feels like he barely knows him.

Wait, his disability....... he can't read.

If he can't read then- 

Chanyeol facepalmed.

He was going to kill Jongdae

*******

"Do you want to go to the orphanage again today?" Baekhyun wiggled his eyebrows at Kyungsoo as they left the classroom, it was the end of the day and it was Friday, which meant that they could spend a long time at one or the other's place and now that Baekhyun was comfortable with Kyungsoo knowing where he lived, he was okay with Kyungsoo coming over if he wanted.

"Of course I do," Kyungsoo said as they reached Baekhyun's locker. Baekhyun opened his locker and watched as a jewel case stumbled out, shattering on the floor. 

"Ack!" Baekhyun shouted in surprise, gripping onto Kyungsoo automatically. 

Kyungsoo laughed and peeled Baekhyun off, "Relax, no one exploded." He bent down to examine the case, there was a CD inside of it. "Look, there's no writing on it." Kyungsoo handed it over to Baekhyun, the cd was blank and the case had a shattered heart drawn over it. 

"Oooh!" Baekhyun's eyes lit up, "Do you think it's from the same person?" 

"I hope so, wouldn't want you getting stalked by 50 people at school." Baekhyun laughed at Kyungsoo's comment, "But anyway, my laptop has a CD slot, we can pop it in when we get to the orphanage." 

The two of them left the school, Baekhyun hooked his arm around Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo rolled his eyes but didn't push him off like before. 

"Imagine what this cd could hold!" 

"You're acting like it will contain the answer to the seven mysteries of the world," Kyungsoo said.

"You mean the eight? This is the eighth mystery." Baekhyun raised the cd case. 

"The mystery should be about who sent it." 

"Good point, but how do we figure that out?" Baekhyun asked

"When we listen to it, maybe there'll be a clue." Baekhyun nodded to what Kyungsoo said and their conversation eventually turned to their homeroom teacher's obvious hangover that day. After various mind-boggling theories for the cause of him drinking on a school night, they reached the orphanage. 

"Baekhyun hyung! Kyungsoo hyung!" The kids ran out of the building, shouting both of their names. 

"Look what I have~" Kyungsoo hummed to the kids and pulled a box out of his bag, it was a box of chocolate chip cookies from his bakery, some of the kids screamed in excitement. Hugging his legs with words of gratitude and they took the box and spread out across the yard, enjoying the dessert after making their hyungs promise that they'd play in a bit. 

"I didn't know you got them something." A smirk played on Baekhyun's lips as they sat on the same bench, and then he pouted, "But you didn't get me anything." Kyungsoo smacked him.

"Hey, you practically get free desserts every day, but here," Kyungsoo stuck his tongue out and handed Baekhyun a cinnamon bun wrapped in a small snack bag, Baekhyun hugged him. 

"You're the best." Kyungsoo gently nudged him off. 

"You're welcome. Now," Kyungsoo pulled out his laptop and took the CD from Baekhyun's hand, "Let's get to the bottom of this." Kyungsoo pulled his earbuds out and placed one of them in Baekhyun's ear. Then after setting it up, he pressed play. 

_**Exo - Unfair** _

_**If you smile at me like that~** _

_**It's hard for me to not feel anything~** _

_**I've already had several cups of coffee baby~** _

_**But why do I still feel like I'm in a dream~** _

_***** _

_**You're unfair~** _

_**Are you being selfish? Stop it~** _

_**Your eyes, your nose your lips, are they still going to be pretty no matter how much I look?~** _

_**You're unfair~** _

_**Just stop right there~** _

_**You're dangerous, take it slow, oh my!~** _

"Ew!" Kyungsoo exclaimed, "This song is corny as hell!"

"But I like it." Baekhyun grinned goofily. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and shoved Baekhyun lightly. "Hey! What was that for?" 

"You look whipped for someone you don't know, that's disturbing." Baekhyun shrugged. 

"What can I say? I think the secret admirer thing is adorable. I've never had someone have a crush on me" Kyungsoo fake gagged but still smiled endearingly. 

"Then, I'm happy for you. Hopefully, it's not a teacher doing it though." 

"Yah!" It was Baekhyun's turn to shove Kyungsoo. "You're being ridiculous, let's just go back to work." 

The duo went back to silently letting the playlist play in their ears, Baekhyun smiled unconsciously as the next song played, leaning his head on Kyungsoo's shoulder, who didn't fight him about it this time, as they watched the other kids play on the field.

**_Henry - It's You_ **

****

**_Baby I'm falling, head over heels~  
Looking for ways to let you know just how I feel~_ **

_**I wish I was holding you by my side~** _

_***** _

**_You're the one that's on my mind~_ **

_**Falling too fast, deeply in love~** _

_**Finding the magic in the colors of you~** _

_***** _

_**You're the right time at the right moment~** _

_**You're the sunlight, keeps my heart going~** _

_**Right time at the right moment~  
It's you~** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to format this chapter so that you don't get left on a cliffhanger, see how I got the sad stuff out of the way first xD
> 
> I'm genuinely surprised that I wrote 10k in over a week I COULD NEVER DO THAT BEFORE, in my past it was like 2k every 2 weeks so this is a weird flex but okay. 
> 
> This might be because I actually wrote the whole outline so I just wrote whatever the outline told me to write for chapter 3, and I still had to cut something because it was getting too long! 
> 
> Chapter 4 looks like it'll be shorter but because I had to move something from chapter 3, O-o I don't know.
> 
> Please share your thoughts below~~ ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE LENGTH, I'm so worried that I wrote too much that it's too much to handle in one chapter. So please let me know~
> 
> With lots of love, cinnamon bun~


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